Posts filed under 'Rogers Wireless'

Maybe it is better that the Canadian launch of the iPhone 4 has been delayed. It looks like early adopters in the United States are having signal problems with their devices. Instead of me explaining the problem to you, take a look at the video below.

We are two weeks into the FIFA World Cup and Rogers has put the finishing touches on an app designed for the Apple iPad Wi-Fi + 3G. The FIFA World Cup Live app allows users to stream the remaining games on their iPad free of charge.

According to the RedBoard post, the app is free to download and all data consumed by the application will NOT come out of your monthly data bucket. The only catch I can see is that your iPad must be registered on the Rogers network and activated on a 30 day plan.

It looks like Apple Canada has removed the “Coming in July” banner on the device from the online store. This change could mean one of two things: either the July launch has been fast-tracked or it has been pushed back.

The Canadian carriers have always said that the iPhone was launching in the “coming week”, if the launch was planned for July why did they no say the device would launch next month. Also, the end of July is still 6 weeks away, giving Apple plenty of time to catch up to demand. This leads me to hope believe that “Coming Soon” is referring to sometime this month, after all it would not make sense for Apple to say “Coming in June” as the month is already half over.

Rogers Wireless has released the N97 Mini, a full touch screen device with slide out QWERTY keyboard.

The Nokia N97 Mini comes with everything you need for productivity and entertainment. It offers the full Ovi suite, including Ovi Maps with free Navigation and a car mount so you can turn this N-series smartphone into a full GPS solution. For your entertainment needs, the N97 Mini comes with exclusive content like Rihanna tracks and 5 free premium games to keep you entertained.

This Android 2.1 smartphone allows for easy integration with Google apps and your favourite social networks. The large 3.5″ touch screen enables viewing of high-definition videos and features a powerful processor, 5.0 MP camera, built-in Wi-Fi and GPS as well as 3G speeds.

Pick up you Acer Liquid E at your local Rogers dealer or online today for the following price points:

$49.99-3 year term
$324.99-2 year term
$379.99-1 year term
$424.99-no term

The iPad and iPad 3G have just launched in Canada. If you don’t know what the iPad think of it this way: The iPad is to the iPhone like a Big Mac is to a cheese burger; a Dr Evil to Mini me, that sort of thing. It’s basically a large iPhone with a 9.7″ higher resolution display with a faster processor (1Ghz vs 600Mhz) and no ability to make calls over the network in a tradional sense anyways. There are 2 versions; one with WiFi and another with WiFi and HSPA. You can choose from 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions which cost $549, $649 and $749 while adding 3G costs $129.

3G services requires a micro SIM card which you can get from Bell or Rogers. 500MB of data costs $15 for 30 days or $35 5GB. If you use up all your data before 30 days is up you can purchase more. Both include unlimited WiFi at Rogers and Bell hotspots. Apparently you can sign up for Rogers plus purchase more data using just the iPad. There’s no need to phone in. Both provide tools to let you view your usage from the iPad.

Bell is allowing use of their Mobile TV until August 31st. Rogers is working on letting you share data from your Rogers phone’s existing data plan (that might come later).

You can pick up a Rogers or Bell micro SIM card from the Apple store, Best Buy or Futureshop. I just checked the Apple online store and it seems you can only choose to include a Rogers micro SIM for an additional $0.20.

I have something to admit, I really like the Curve Bold and Storm 2. I also have to admit that I hate the Pearl. While I’ve never posted a review for the Pearl I did get one to review a while back and I hated it so much I couldn’t use it enough to post a review. It was slow, I hated the Sure Type keyboard, didn’t like the low resolution 240×240 display and it was just a very dated design (I was playing with a 8120).

While the Pearl 9100 is powered by a 624Mhz processor and packs 256MB of RAM (both identical to the Bold 9700) plus it has a 360×400 display. I have to admit I was still skeptical. After all it still uses Sure Type and still has a smallish display.

The silicon cases in my video don’t ship with the 9100 but are optional accessories.

The 9100 I’m reviewing is a HSPA phone on Telus though Rogers and Bell will also be carrying it as well.

As I mentioned the display has a resolution of 360×400 which it’s a huge improvement from 240×240. You get more than double the number of pixels! I did find the color to be slightly washed out though it’s not a huge deal.

The keyboard has 5 keys across and uses Sure Type predictive text input – new for the Pearl 3G is the 9105; a version with a keypad that is 3 keys across. While I haven’t used a regular keypad in a long time I’m sure those who are will appreciate the the more familiar layout. Personally I’m not crazy about the 5 row keyboard since I grew up with a steady diet of regular keypads, I’ve never used a 5 row keyboard till I used the 8120. That said SureType works okay most of the time. The 9100′s relatively fast processor makes it easy to use.

As far as WiFi goes the 9100 supports 802.11n. So while I highly doubt the 9100 can utilize the extra speed you get with 802.11n it probably does a better job of co-existing with 802.11n networks in that it won’t slow your other 802.11n stuff down.

The 9100′s main feature is its messaging capabilities. You can configure the 9100 to push IMAP, POP, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! or AOL mail to your device. There’s also Blackberry Messenger which you can use to message with other Blackberry owners. Blackberry messenger will also let you create chatrooms.

You can download Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, Flickr, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and even a TiVo program all from RIM via the Blackberry App World program.

There are multimedia keys on top of the 9100 in addition to the volume buttons on the right. On either side are soft keys whose functions can be redefined (by default the right is a camera shutter button) while the left is a voice dial key.

There are multimedia keys to control music and video playback on top of the 9100.

Speaking about the music player I’ve always like one of the 9700 so I like the 9100′s. It’s easy to use and has just enough features to keep me happy.

You get around 256MB of storage built in which you can expand to 16GB using Micro SDHC cards (you get 2GB in the box). The MciroSDHC card is located behind the battery cover – you have to remove the battery to access it. As far as write speed goes I got around 5 or 6MB per second. I have a feeling I would have observed better numbers if I had a faster memory card.

When browsing the menus I noticed how similar the 9100 is to the 9700 menu wise. You get pretty much all the same programs as the Bold. It was hard finding differences so I checked the RIM webpage out. Apparently the 9100 doesn’t have Bluetooth DUN and plus you get some additional audio and video codec support.

I noticed you get a few extra games with the 9100. Besides Brickbreaker, Wordmole (my favorite), Sudoku and Klondike you also get Word Trooper and Texxas Hold’Em King 2.

You get a 3.2MP camera which is pretty standard fare. Image quality is not that bad for a 3.2 megapixel camera. The video camera records at 640×480@24fps which is actually higher res than the Bold 9700′s. Video quality is also not terrible.

The Achilles heel of the current crop of Blackberries is their browser. It takes forever to render web pages plus you can only view one page at time. On the upside once a page has been rendered the scroll speed isn’t so bad.

While the 9100 comes with a 1150mAh battery (1500mAh on the 9700) you do get a smaller display. Like most Blackberries battery life is measured in days.

To test RF performance I compared the 9100 head to head with a 9700. While both are close I found the 9700 to be slightly better. In an area with low signal I found the 9100 blanked audio more where the 9700 didn’t.

Sound Quality is good on the 9100. It has slight hiss and is ever so slightly harsh.

Now normally I find I tend to write a lot more for my reviews but for the 9100 I don’t have that much to say. I guess much of what I’ve said about the Bold 9700 applies to the 9100 as well.

So while I hated the original Pearl I don’t find the new Pearl 3G to be all that bad. Now that I don’t mind the keyboard I’m actually beginning to understand the appeal of the Pearl – particularly it’s form factor. It’s just slightly wider than a feature phone but still narrower and noticeably lighter than a regular smartphone. Another thing to consider is that horsepower wise you don’t lose anything over the Bold 9700. You get a the same amount of RAM the same speed processor and a 3.2MP camera. Of course the fact that you get so many of the Bold 9700′s goodies are a good sign that the Bold should be getting an upgrade soon (for example the Bold 9650 gets 512MB RAM).

In the past if someone said: “Howard you’re going to have to use a Pearl as your daily phone” I’d probably think about chopping my hands off to get out of it. With the 9100 though I wouldn’t complain much if that were the case.